Playing house!

Who knew owning a house was so much fun AND work. I always expected it to be a labor of love, but a labor of painting, wallpapering, purchasing, electrical work, yard work, purchasing, cleaning, unpacking, purchasing, purchasing and did I mention…PURCHASING!

In the end though we couldn’t be happier here in our little corner of Alger Heights. We have amazing neighbors which include the young couple next door with a small child and great old Golden Retriever named Bear and the woman across the street who greeted us with amazing White Chocolate Cranberry cookies the weekend we moved in. The neighborhood is well established, mostly people our age, very active and seems to be close knit. It will be nice to assimilate into the community and hopefully offer something that can be of benefit to the area, whatever that may be.

As I stated in the beginning, we have been busy though. We moved in now about 2 months ago and we have been doing something to the house almost every night. In fact, Ben just finished installing a new WiFi Thermostat (and thank you DTE and Consumers for providing a $70 dollar mail-in rebate to help recoup the cost and my sister for the Lowe’s gift card for Ben’s birthday). However, with most new additions, you find old problems. Tonight was the humidifier on the furnace not being hooked up. Tomorrow he’ll probably hang the new house numbers we bought and install a couple more nightlight plugs we got today as well. And if we are not inside working, we are outside mowing, edging, watering plants, weeding, blowing off the driveway and sidewalk and soon…SHOVELING!

In the midst of the Choas, we added a new family member to the house. For those of you counting, that makes FIVE in total. We have Ben and myself, Muggsy the mischievous cat, Penelope the rambunctious parrot and now, Bixby, the teeny bobtail kitten. It’s been an interesting week watching Muggsy who has ruled the roost adjust to having a new sister. Slowly but surely things have been getting better. At least now they can be in the same room.

After getting acquainted to home ownership and all the responsibilities included, I would have to say the thing that has surprised me the most is how long it has taken to get settled in the house. I have now moved a total of NINE times in the last 8 years and this is the longest it has taken to unpack. I am not sure why but I speculate it’s because we know we will be here for a LONG time so do not feel the urgency. However, I have most enjoyed having company. It has been great to have friends and family stop by and share in the excitement of owning a home. It is very different from having people to previous places that were rented. Back then, it felt like showing off a place for future renter prospects but now, I am showing people our true home, a place we belong and own (well, owe on) and never have to give back to someone. It is a great feeling. I hope that our home will be a place where everyone feels welcome, and never feels they need an invite to visit. Ben and I have always made a concerted effort to think of those in our lives first. From the day we married, to the anniversaries to come, we always try to think of how our choices effect those we love and now that we own a home, I hope this reflects our efforts.

So with that, I will extend this one invite to all we love. Anytime, day or night, you are always welcome.

We’re the grey house with the red door.